LEL'S LASAGNE!

Just having a coffee break after a busy morning doing laundry, ironing and making tonight's dinner.

Please don't think I'm being swanky with the café style coffee glass and amaretti biscuits. I always make milky drinks in these glasses. I'm not a true coffee lover and prefer the sachets of coffee mocha choca or latte type drinks. I did spoil myself with a sprinkle of Spanish hot chocolate, which is heading up to it's sell by date. Ditto the amaretti biscuits, well January 2019 actually, but that's close enough for me to start munching them.  I bought them last Christmas from Lidl, but forgot they were in the cupboard. I've had a little nose into my cupboards with a view to an Autumnal clear out.  I can tell you, this is not going to be good for my waistline!

Yes, that's Pearl in the background, looking oh so sweetly asleep. She's spent most of the morning in the garden stalking our mole, but that's another post in itself.

For dinner, I've prepared my sister Lel's chicken and vegetable lasagne, as we haven't had it in an age. It's comfort food, but lighter than the conventional recipe, which of course I also love. Lel can't eat tomatoes, so came up with this alternative to the traditional lasagne recipe.

Sorry, but I'm a bit of fan of the Jamie Oliver school of cooking, the sort of bish, bash bosh approach.

I know I haven't cracked recipe presentation by a mile, but here goes, with  gratuitous pics that probably don't add much anyway.

In a large frying pan, put 2 tbs of oil and sautee one large finely chopped onion,  three carrots cut into halves, then quarters then thinly sliced. Cook for a few minutes.

Add half a large head of  broccoli, separating the florets into small florets and cutting the stalks in the same way as the carrots.

Add one red bell pepper, chopped into 2cm pieces, 2 to 3 crushed garlic cloves, 4 to 5 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 tsp of dry, salt and ground black pepper.

Cut a large chicken breast into bite sized pieces. Push all of the veggies to the sides of the pan and pop the chopped chicken into the middle. Add a good dash of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, and jostle about until browned.  I know the pan will seem quite full, but I just find this easier than doing each thing and taking out onto a plate, also, less washing up, win, win.

Mix everything together. Make half a pint of stock with boiling water and a chicken stock cube and add to pan, stir in.

Make a white sauce

I use 600 mls of milk, 60g each of butter and plain flour, a generous pinch each of ground black pepper and salt and 1 tsp of Dijon mustard. 

I put the whole lot in a saucepan on a medium heat and stir continuously but gently, with a balloon whisk until thickened.

Put a thin layer of chicken and veg mixture into the bottom of an oblong ovenproof dish, followed by a layer of dry pasta sheets. I could only get three sheets per layer in my dish. Spoon over another more generous layer of chicken and veg mix.

Top with  a few spoonfulls of sauce and then repeat until you've used up the chicken and veg.

Pour the remaining sauce over the top and sprinkle with a cheese of your choice.  I had some frozen grated mozzarella that needed using up and a good final grate of parmesan. I sprinkled on some dry Italian seasoning, which is optional.

Bake in the oven on 200 for 30 to 45 mins, but check after 30 mins. It should be golden and bubbling.

We ate it with salad.

There were leftovers, which Mr. boxed up for his lunch tomorrow, and I plated up some for me too!

I felt this meal matched todays lovely sunny weather. Unfortunately, as we ate it, the wind started to whistle down the chimney and the skies opened.  Such is life!